Solar thermal plant impact analysis and requirements definition

Progress on a continuing study comprising of ten tasks directed at defining impact and requirements for solar thermal power systems (SPS), 1 to 10 MWe each in capacity, installed during 1985 through year 2000 in a utility or a nonutility load in the United States is summarized. The point focus distributed receiver (PFDR) solar power systems are emphasized. Tasks 1 through 4, completed to date, include the development of a comprehensive data base on SPS configurations, their performance, cost, availability, and potential applications; user loads, regional characteristics, and an analytic methodology that incorporates the generally accepted utility financial planning methods and several unique modifications to treat the significant and specific characteristics of solar power systems deployed in either central or distributed power generation modes, are discussed

Information-theoretic Sensorimotor Foundations of Fitts' Law

© 2019 ACM. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published is accessible via https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3313053We propose a novel, biologically plausible cost/fitness function for sensorimotor control, formalized with the information-theoretic principle of empowerment, a task-independent universal utility. Empowerment captures uncertainty in the perception-action loop of different nature (e.g. noise, delays, etc.) in a single quantity. We present the formalism in a Fitts' law type goal-directed arm movement task and suggest that empowerment is one potential underlying determinant of movement trajectory planning in the presence of signal-dependent sensorimotor noise. Simulation results demonstrate the temporal relation of empowerment and various plausible control strategies for this specific task

FERC Order 1000 as a New Tool for Promoting Energy Efficiency and Demand Response

In July 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order No. 1000, the latest in a series of orders directed at improving federal transmission access, planning, and coordination. Order 1000 requires, for the first time, that electricity transmission providers engage in regionwide transmission planning, and further mandates that such planning consider how federal and state public policies affect transmission needs. Public utility transmission providers are now in the process of amending their operating tariffs to comply with this new order. It is therefore an important time for all those with an interest in the future of the electric grid to pay attention to how Order 1000 is being interpreted and implemented by various regions across the country

Advances in targeted Alpha therapy for prostate cancer

BACKGROUND: Amongst therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, targeted alpha therapy (TαT) can deliver potent and local radiation selectively to cancer cells as well as the tumor microenvironment and thereby control cancer while minimizing toxicity. DESIGN: In this review, we discuss the history, progress, and future potential of TαT in the treatment of prostate cancer, including dosimetry-individualized treatment planning, combinations with small-molecule therapies, and conjugation to molecules directed against antigens expressed by prostate cancer cells, such as prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) or components of the tumor microenvironment. RESULTS: A clinical proof of concept that TαT is efficacious in treating bone-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer has been demonstrated by radium-223 via improved overall survival and long-term safety/tolerability in the phase III ALSYMPCA trial. Dosimetry calculation and pharmacokinetic measurements of TαT provide the potential for optimization and individualized treatment planning for a precision medicine-based cancer management paradigm. The ability to combine TαTs with other agents, including chemotherapy, androgen receptor (AR)-targeting agents, DNA repair inhibitors, and immuno-oncology agents, is under investigation. Currently, TαTs that specifically target prostate cancer cells expressing PSMA represents a promising therapeutic approach. Both PSMA-targeted actinium-225 and thorium-227 conjugates are under investigation. CONCLUSIONS: The described clinical benefit, safety and tolerability of radium-223 and the recent progress in TαT trial development suggest that TαT occupies an important new role in prostate cancer treatment. Ongoing studies with newer dosimetry methods, PSMA targeting, and novel approaches to combination therapies should expand the utility of TαT in prostate cancer treatment

Keeping the Lights on during Superstorm Sandy: Climate Change and Adaptation and the Resiliency Benefits of Distributed Generation

Hurricane Sandy (ultimately downgraded to Superstorm Sandy by the time it hit the coasts of New York and New Jersey in late October 2012) was the most lethal and destructive hurricane in 2012, resulting in 285 deaths, $68 billion in damages, and 8.5 million utility customers in the eastern United States losing power. Superstorm Sandy provided a wake-up call for electric utilities on the need to adopt a different set of long-term planning tools to improve the resilience of the electric system against anticipated extreme weather events. The experience of Superstorm Sandy provides a case study of the system resiliency benefits of distributed generation (DG) resources and microgrids, and valuable lessons that can be learned as utilities plan for increasingly frequent extreme weather events of the future. This Article examines legal and regulatory tools available to encourage electric utilities to move in the direction of a DG-based model, and it focuses in particular on the Consolidated Edison Company of New York (Con Edison) rate proceeding in New York. In that recently concluded proceeding, utility regulators had an opportunity to consider a traditional approach proposed by the utility-featuring transmission and distribution infrastructure investments-alongside a competing view of a utility of the future offered by environmental parties, geared toward a more resilient system that integrates DG resources and microgrids. In a precedent-setting order issued by the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) on February 21, 2014, the PSC required Con Edison to make significant investments to enhance system reliability, to achieve a higher level of storm hardening and resiliency in the face of anticipated climate change and sea level rise. Con Edison was directed to take specific steps to use DG resources as an alternative to traditional infrastructure, to facilitate DG installations in its service territory, and to develop an implementation plan for microgrids in its service territory. More broadly, utilities in New York were directed to integrate predicted impacts from climate change into their long-term system planning processes. The article also examines other legal theories that can be used in utility regulatory proceedings to move utilities toward a new utility paradigm that features DG resources, including the prudent investment standard, the doctrine of used and useful, and the requirement to set cost-based rates

New Opportunities for Solar Through Grid Modernization

Lawmakers and utility regulators in California and New York have been extensively engaged in efforts to modernize the electric distribution grid. This paper draws on the experience of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) staff in each jurisdiction and explains how these efforts are creating new opportunities for solar power. The paper describes the policy and political landscape in each state and summarizes the ways in which regulators are currently addressing grid modernization. We identify common elements of these efforts, which include: 1) updating utility system planning; 2) identifying alternatives to traditional utility investments; 3) establishing robust cost benefit frameworks; 4) modifying compensation frameworks to drive investments in distributed energy resources (DER), and 5) making utility investments in technologies that bring new functionality to the grid itself. Future papers will drill down into the details of these issues and discuss the pace of change, whether grid modernization efforts are bearing fruit, and obstacles to implementation

CP-nets: A Tool for Representing and Reasoning withConditional Ceteris Paribus Preference Statements

Information about user preferences plays a key role in automated decision making. In many domains it is desirable to assess such preferences in a qualitative rather than quantitative way. In this paper, we propose a qualitative graphical representation of preferences that reflects conditional dependence and independence of preference statements under a ceteris paribus (all else being equal) interpretation. Such a representation is often compact and arguably quite natural in many circumstances. We provide a formal semantics for this model, and describe how the structure of the network can be exploited in several inference tasks, such as determining whether one outcome dominates (is preferred to) another, ordering a set outcomes according to the preference relation, and constructing the best outcome subject to available evidence

Goal conflict, goal facilitation, and health professionals' provision of physical activity advice in primary care : An exploratory prospective study

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Graph Planning with Expected Finite Horizon

Graph planning gives rise to fundamental algorithmic questions such as shortest path, traveling salesman problem, etc. A classical problem in discrete planning is to consider a weighted graph and construct a path that maximizes the sum of weights for a given time horizon $T$. However, in many scenarios, the time horizon is not fixed, but the stopping time is chosen according to some distribution such that the expected stopping time is $T$. If the stopping time distribution is not known, then to ensure robustness, the distribution is chosen by an adversary, to represent the worst-case scenario. A stationary plan for every vertex always chooses the same outgoing edge. For fixed horizon or fixed stopping-time distribution, stationary plans are not sufficient for optimality. Quite surprisingly we show that when an adversary chooses the stopping-time distribution with expected stopping time $T$, then stationary plans are sufficient. While computing optimal stationary plans for fixed horizon is NP-complete, we show that computing optimal stationary plans under adversarial stopping-time distribution can be achieved in polynomial time. Consequently, our polynomial-time algorithm for adversarial stopping time also computes an optimal plan among all possible plans